The Land of LAF

Monday, May 4, 2015

Hi all here we are again I late in getting this out so lets just Say this is my May post. The last month has been overwhelming so many things to do so little time and it is go to go faster as we apporach the month of August. Which is when I will be leaveing Kansas City and heading to UNC-Chapel Hill.

The open studios event that happened on the First of May was a success for me I sold over $400.00 dollars worth of painting/drawings and still have plenty more so if you want to get one still hit me up. The 31st of April was my last day at MWSU, sad to go before some of my former students graduate but I will see them again in the future. I still have lots of work to do before I leave and people to hangout with as well. I will be selling many other items as well in the coming weeks trying to move with as little as possible. I have been working on a group of paintings for the Leopold Gallery, hope to have them finished by the end of May and in the gallery.

Install shot from open studios of the curve pieces, no wants me to destory them but I kind of want to.

Still considering options for them one is to sell them to someone for use at the Nelson for a bean bag toss. Which if they agree to destroy after there use and send me documentation of said destruction I might be okay with.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

So March is over and April is starting. I am still waiting to find out if I am going to graduate school. The wait is stressing me out like no other. I just want to know so I can plan appropriately for the future. I really wish I had options but I applied to 5 schools and have been denied by 4. The school that was my number one choice has me on their wait list (Number 2), and I'm waiting to hear if someone (2 someones, that is) decides not to go. I have decided that if I don't get in or get enough financial aid to go, that I have two options. One is to apply again this fall/winter, but where and how many schools do I apply too. Second is to rethink this graduate school thing all together and start applying to some good residencies. Perhaps I need to do both. One thing for sure is that I am going to start making some packets to send to galleries that I am interested in. In hopes to show work outside of KCMO, the midwest art collectors are not ready for my type of work especially here in Kansas City. I will for sure be moving come the end of July but to where is up in the air. Unless I get accepted to graduate school which will end up being North Carolina - Chapel Hill. If I am not accepted I will be going to Bloomington, Indiana with my wonderful girlfriend Kendra. What shall I do there I have no clue, but making art is going to be number one on the list, while finding a job that gives me free time to paint and pays a decent wage is the other.

I am really in need of the of a CNC router and a large surface planer or surface sander. With these tools I could start to make the shaped paintings that I think would be really excellent. I also need to think about the supplies in my studio that needs to be replenished. I need new brushes all around, new oil paints, more markers, and everything involved with using one shot paints. Off course I am needing to replace tools that have gone bad over the years, #1 on this list is a sander. I wouldn't mind getting a kreg pocket jig and some plug cutters. I have been using the schools this semester.

My time at the Drugstore is coming to an end and I will be leaving these studios this summer. Which will be tough but I can only hope that the future is great and bright for all. When I left the CSF residency I did not think I was going to find such a great place to work that the Drugstore has been.

Also my time as the Tools & Tech instructor at MWSU is ending at the end of April. It has had its ups and downs. My time there has made me discover that I would like to be teaching especially at the collegiate level. I am hopeful for this to happen again in my future and I would love to teach painting and drawing classes, my heart is much closer to them than a shop class. Although I would have to say a foundations class would be a lot of fun to teach, in the fact that it is more interdisciplinary.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Okay! Month two of 2015 is going slow, so slow that I am posting this on the first day of March. I am hoping my students will be finished with their first project by the end of the month, so they can get started on project 2 and 3. My studio is plugging along with nothing in the works as far as a show. Generating future plans for future paintings. I am really just building things that are of an interest to myself. I have been cutting more vinyl stencils so far this year and am happy with the outcomes right now. I have decided that the size of the paintings I have been making could get a little bit bigger, the smallest dimension should be fifteen inches.

New shape panels

Size varies

These are going to start to develop into something more meaningful than just random shapes. I am researching places I have lived over my life and the boundaries that are meaningful within. But until I have the research done on these I am just going to have fun with shapes.

Here's the 'works in progress' wall, really liking what's going on but really ready to move to the next phase with some oil paint. Would really like to find somewhere to show this body of work in the future. Also I have been making some new panels and have been really working on the craft part of it. Plugs for screw holes, maybe some lap joints, and I really want to give dovetailing a try both by hand and with a router.

I'm really into ponchos right now. Just to catch you up on my graduate school status, here are the results so far; two schools have said no, one has said I am #2 on the wait list and I have not heard from the other two, which makes me feel like I may be on their wait lists as well.

Monday, January 19, 2015

So all of my Grad. School Applications have been submitted and the waiting game has begun.

Above is a painting I was able to finish just before the new year and am quite happy with it. Looking forward to getting into the studio more this Spring, I have a pile of panels started and need to finish. If I can save some money I am going to start sending out flyers to find representation outside of KCMO. Debating with myself if I should apply to the Midwest addition of New American Painters this year. Most likely will have plenty of good images and it really doesn't hurt to apply just a little $$$.

Process shots: I have been working on this painting for about year the top image is really close to the beginning of its start the lower image is from 1/19/2015. This painting is one that has been fighting me to find its finished state but I am pleased with where it is headed and I hope it gets finished this spring. Metallic Enamel Paint is my new best friend now!

So a little while back the Charlotte Street Foundation was looking for images to turn into buttons and I submitted this little fellow above. I never heard anything about these buttons after that. So I am going to try to get some buttons made and give out to my friends and whoever wants one. Will keep you posted on these I may need to make some variants. This all will depend on taxes and if I can save money and make money. But I really want to make these.

Okay last but not the least here is an in progress image of one of my shaped paintings these are really something different to work with, still researching the shapes and where they need to come from. The progress of this one has been quite enjoyable for me. I have only been painting on it for a couple of sessions.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

So 2014 is almost in the books, and I am not a great blogger. Since starting this blog back in 2010 I feel that I have been a below average blogger. And really this blog is for me so why can't I seem to get it together and get it on track? That is my big question to myself. To kind of answer this I am not giving myself and my art work the respect we deserve. I am awful at scheduling for myself and my interests. So I am challenging myself to to make one post a month for the whole year of 2015. Each post needs to be more than a picture. I am going to schedule myself some time to sit down with distractions turned off and give myself the respect I deserve. I need to do this it will help me with the things I am interested in, I challenge myself to post a picture of something that I find interesting, a picture of a completed or in progress art work, to write a short paragraph of whats new in my life or what is happening that is exciting, anything that I would like to change and why. With this I would like to visit or spend time with others as well not all the time since I am kind of a home body once I get home take of the shoes and eat some food. I once or twice a month thing, and it can be different people each month or the same but get out there see shit make friend or reacquaint with old ones. I already know of some new things that will be happening this coming year some sad and some exciting many both. I hope to share them as they come along here.

So the Season is the Holidays and I am not much of a Holidays kind of person. I think it gets me down for some reason and I'm not really sure why. Oh there is the not seeing my family and I come from a family that likes to get together and party for any reason but all I have to do is go visit and that can happen. It could be not seeing my niece and nephew I remember all the fun I had as a kid this time of year, but really they are still pretty young so what will they remember I don't remember to much form when I was there ages. I do know that working part time a Home Depot during this time of year is not helping it is just another way for me to be stuck in the greediness of The United States of America, cause really who the hell really does that much holiday shopping at a big box home repair store (sad face). Add to it that holiday music (mostly Christmas) has been playing since Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations have been for sale since Halloween. It just makes me sad.

About Me

Luke Firle is a painter, hailing from Hematite, Missouri. He came to Kansas City to study at the Kansas City Art Institute in 2000 and graduated in 2002. He has since been featured locally often in both group and solo shows as well as regionally and nationally.
He works in a variety of paint mediums including acrylic, spray paint and oil to name a few. His inspirations include sports, architecture, music, and how the city and its inhabitants work as complex systems that interact and compete with one another. Raising questions that we as people of this day and time must incorporate into our daily lives. Which is intriguing to him since he grew up in a rural community and how the two are similar in their deconstructing and reconstructing of their environments.